Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Tuesday, October 5, 2004

WORKING ON THE BIG BANG THEORY

I’m tired. It is late. Today’s practice was very gratifying. Two hours felt like ten minutes. The assistant coaches were great today.

We ran one of the old " coach gets REALLY cranky if you don’t do it right" drills great. It is called the Counter attack drill, and they did it so right on today that I was just gushing as it went. This is a very physically demanding and mentally fatiguing type of drill. It is in fact only one of my many it-makes-me-cranky-if-it-doesn't-go-well drills (this means I become Elton John if they drop the ball or whatever).

During stick drills I often count consecutive passes caught and things like that, putting pressure on, and then acting destroyed when the ball hits the turf after my count only gets to one and a half. Some of them get nervous and melt down when I sometimes stop whatever I am doing and focus on them during drills. Making this choking action occur in them is one of my little sadistic amusements in life.

Some might say that this type of coaching does not help a team.

All I have to say to that is that I have it on good authority that fear is a tremendous motivator. I stood on the sidelines and watched Bill Tierney in Tokyo this past summer verbally "undress" one of his star Princeton players on the field during the game for having his socks on wrong (can’t remember if guilty sox were up and should have been down or vice versa). I never saw so many huge people in uniform simultaneously look for someplace to hide. This was a game in June (season is over) that meant nothing, and Princeton was having their way with the Japanese National Team anyway. Can you say demanding? Can you also say six national championships?

Anyway, I digress. I didn’t mean to say anything that is in the above paragraphs. What I meant to sit down and write about was a "special moment" that was an exclamation point to a meaningful practice. We have been split lately into "even" teams, or as balanced as I could make them for the scrimmages. We have been playing what I might call small, full games every day we go out. On the last play of a hard fought "game" today, one young buck had an opportunity and proceeded to take advantage of the moment to absolutely unload a giant hit on one of our more experienced bigger bucks, landing him flat on his back side. The young one used his stick as spatula and flipped the bigger one over like a giant pancake. The new kid on the block had flexed his muscles in quite a noticeable way.

The most remarkable part was still to come. This was a good place to stop, thought I. I blew the whistle and we were done. As those two now grounded bodies rose they both had huge smiles on their faces, and then they did a most extraordinary thing. They hugged. It felt more like we all (whole team) hugged. Everyone who was there saw it and was therefore a part of it. It was an awesome moment for our team in my opinion. The sprinklers came on to authenticate the proceedings.

They did their 50-50 (50 sit ups and 50 push-ups at the end) in an almost joyful team way. They used to hate this part sometimes. Lately they seem to almost like it.

Then we all went home, satisfied with our place in the world right now. This edition of CSU lacrosse may not be overflowing with an overabundance of talent, but it sure seems to have a lot of the other stuff that counts. I wonder how far that can take us.

Next Entry | Previous Entry


Flip Started Blogging Before it was Cool, Read Over 400 of His Entries Since January 2001
Jump to a Period:
2006: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov
2005: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2004: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2003: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2002: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2001: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Sept Oct Nov Dec